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Peter Ruff," she said, "the famous specialist in the detection of crime? You know that Brian Sotherst is my brother?" "Yes," he said, "I know it! I am sorry very sorry, indeed." He handed her a chair. She seated herself with a little tightening of the lips. "I want more than sympathy from you, Mr. Ruff," she warned him. "I want your help."
Brian Sotherst had been very popular among Letty Shaw's little circle of friends, and the general feeling was one of horror and consternation at this thing which had befallen him.
There was scarcely a person there who within the last fortnight had not found an opportunity of congratulating her upon her engagement to Captain the Honourable Brian Sotherst. Sotherst was rich, and one of the most popular young men about town.
At any rate, Captain Sotherst arrives a few minutes later. He finds, half in the hall, half on the threshold of the sitting room, Austen Abbott dead, and Miss Shaw's revolver by the side of him. If he had been a wise young man, he would have aroused the household. Why he did not do so, we can perhaps guess. He put two and two together a little too quickly.
One footman on the threshold nearly addressed him, but the words were taken out of his mouth when he saw Lady Mary and her brother the Honorable Maurice Sotherst hasten forward to greet him. Peter Ruff smiled upon them benignly. "You can take the paper out of my breast-coat pocket," he said. The young man's fingers gripped it.
You are Captain Sotherst you have just entered. I am Austen Abbott. You, Miss Shaw, have just ordered me from the room. You see, I move toward the door. I open it so. Miss Shaw," he added, turning swiftly towards her, "once more will you assure me that every one who was in the flat that night, with the exception of your domestic servant, is present now?" "Yes," she murmured. "Good!
Brian Sotherst, who had escaped from his engagement in time, he thought, to come and wish you good night, must have walked in and found him there. By the bye, how would Captain Sotherst get in?" "He had a key," the girl answered. "My mother lives here with me, and we have only one maid. It was more convenient. I gave him one washed in gold for a birthday present only a few days ago."
"Captain Sotherst is such a dear," Miss Brown declared, "and so good-looking! And as for that brute Austen Abbott, he ought to have been shot long ago!" Peter Ruff seated himself before his desk and hitched up his trousers at the knees. "No doubt you are right, Violet," he said, "but people go about these things so foolishly.
Tell me, at what hour is the first drive this morning, and are the places drawn yet?" "Come into the gun-room and we'll see," Lord Sotherst answered. Peter Ruff made his way to the back quarters of the house. In a little sitting-room he found the man he sought, sitting alone. Peter Ruff closed the door behind him. "John Dory," he said, "I have come to have a few words with you."
Come, I must play bridge with the Countess. I am engaged for a table." The two men parted. Peter Ruff was uneasy. On his way from the room, Lord Sotherst insisted upon his joining a pool. "Charming fellow, Sogrange," the latter remarked, as he chalked his cue. "He has been a great friend of the governor's he and his father before him. Our families have intermarried once or twice."